Memorial Day Weekend! Here in the US, we celebrate Memorial Day on the last Monday of May - which is this weekend! So I'm sure lots of you will be busy with parades and picnics and barbecues and cookouts and parties. Have fun - and don't forget that your MechQuest team is still working to get the new Star Captain Monthly Mecha ready!(And yes, that's fun for us! We'll get some celebrating in as well.)

This mecha is yet another amazing design by Thyton, with specials by blues. The AC-490 mechas will be rolling in to Tek's Monthly Shop in Soluna on Monday, so if you're inside cooling off, why not log in to MechQuest for a peek!

New Weapons in Miko's Shops! Minar, whom some of you may know from the forums, designed and animated some very cool new weapons for Planet Yokai this week. Visit Miko's shop to check these out - there is a Front Arm, Dragon Fury, in the Nova Gem shop; in the regular shop you will find the Straw Hat for Star Captains and also the Scroll Beam Front Shoulder (available to all players).

Snake Master Reward Shops: We discovered that some of you were having trouble unlocking these shops after completing the new Temple of Masters mission from Miko on Planet Yokai. There was much emailing and texting and instant-messaging, phoning and testing and troubleshooting - many thanks to Korin for rolling Fix #1 (which alas didn't completely solve this for everyone - Fix #2 will come soon) and to Vivi for posting the following workaround on the forums:

Gremlin Workaround by Vivi: If you're still having trouble accessing the reward shops after beating the Snake Master, please complete the Assault Mission one more time. This should cause the lock next to the shops to become an exclamation point and then defeating the Snake Master will unlock the shops properly. We'll try to get the quest fixed so that this isn't necessary, but for now this is how you get into the reward shops. Sorry for any inconvenience.

So have a wonderful weekend, and thanks for playing MechQuest! Please tell your friends, too. We have a lot of exciting things planned for the upcoming weeks!

What with all the shop-gremlin-busting activity, I completely forgot to deliver the Design Notes from Blues! So here they are:

- Def BoT, +10 per turn, 5 turns- chance for a Damage buff, roll between 40 and 70% - chance for a damage reduce NoT, 5 turns, -8% per turn- chance for an increasing EP DoT, starts with normal DoT damage and increases by 25% then for 3 turns. Adds +25% to the last damage done.

Scroll Beam (2 Hits) - FS - NSC

- Hit 1: chance for a damage boost for this hit, roll between 40 and 60%- Hit 2: chance for a crit

*Maegwyn tells me that the Damage NoT for the NG version doesn't look like it's happening right now - or else she's very unlucky. So if this special isn't happening on the NG Arm yet, don't worry - it will get added soon!

Naturally there was joy and cake and dancing and cheering and frosting and sugar and now we're all singing the nations of the world! Fantastic. Great times. I'll send you a post card next time. ^_~. But really, thanks for all the birthday wishes <3

This wondrous release day we have the first of the Kung-Fu Masters! Do you have what it takes to defeat him!? Only time will tell!...... HarHAR TIME! Get it!?! Time!?... No....not working for ya....welp...moving on. Lets welcome back Blues who's been on Vaca for these past few weeks. Yaaay! Welcome Back! He'll have some DN's posted up this weekend.

The Star Captain Mech AC-490 will be released Monday! I know...I know...we seem to be progressively moving backwards on these things...OR! Were we just planning to release it on a Holiday!? :D

Now before I have a complete sugar crash I'm going to tell you we have some fancy pants stuff in store for Yokai. We've all been working double time! Why?! Cause MechQuest is Awesome! And we love making it Awesome! And your Awesome for playing! Hurray for AWESOME!

This was an exciting weekend for me, because I was able to fix two Gremlins that weren't plain typofixes! Just small things, but this means I can help a little more, and I find that thrilling. Apparition helped test those and indeed the fixes worked! Korin fixed some other things so that we now have a nice fixlist to give you. Also the other excitement was that I had a nice little mini-vacation Sunday overnight through Monday - and saw something that might have been an otter! It wasn't a snake, and there was no tailslap like a beaver would most likely do when startled, and the only other likely thing that would be diving sleekly underwater in this swamp was a River Otter!

Anyway, here's the fixlist:

Zargon:A) Note: in the Parts quest, the battles to defend the Daily Zargon Headquarters are not intended to heal you - you only get healed after the Refinery battles. Not a bug.

B) Typos fixed in speech bubbles with Bruce Benner at the end of Rescue the Heroes

Westion: Walkaround with Homesteader fixed

Desert Nosferatu - one lingering issue where a popup said the enemy was affected instead of the player, now fixed. (Used to say, "Enfeeblement! Desert Nosferatu grows weaker!" Now correctly displays player's name.)

No Buggy Monday today. We have a few fixes made but they're mainly typo fixes. Maegwyn is elsewhere today and rather than release a tiny set of bugfixes, I figure it might be a better idea to wait until tomorrow when she comes back so we can make a better update and I'm sure all of you would appreciate that too.

This week, you can expect the NEW STAR CAPTAIN MONTHLY MECHA!! So you better get the Morehawk while you can! After Friday's release, it will be gone forever! The name of the new SCMM is the AC-490! I'll post pictures as soon as I can. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post the sketches.

Also this week you'll be fighting your first boss on Planet Yokai! We'll be fighting the Snake in the Temple of Masters! Miko will also have some new weapons for you and you will also get a special boss weapon upon defeating the boss!

So until tomorrow, I'll leave you all with that bunch of info. Enjoy and be sure to check back tomorrow!

Forgive me for the Wizard of Oz pun. Sincerely. Anywho, Design Notes are a little late. So was the release by a couple hours. I was surprised it was only by a couple hours. There WERE going to be weapon rewards but I figured just opening the Yokai story to all players via New Release button is best. If anyone wishes to watch the intro that has entered Yokai from New Releases panel may want to find the Replay Intro button from Miko. It will include the cutscene and still leave you confused. As for removing the storyline requirements, it'll only be this way until C-Mail is up to date.

In quick news, I have this to say. And by "I", I mean the person that sent me the text. Huzzah!

Starlord Class

Star Captains are quick and dangerous, capable of engaing multipl e enemies at range.Star Captains gain mana when they:strike an enemy in combat (more effective on crits)Dodge any attack (restores HP as well)

Rank 5 High Energy Arc30 Mana, 12 sec cooldownPhysicalEmits a burst of energy that will hit up to 3 targets, dealing less damage with each bounce, returning part of the damage dealt as HP if the target is affected by Pulse Compression.

Well there's som fancy AQW stuff for you. Remember that you need to upgrade in all 3 games(AQ, DF, and MQ) to get access to ALL the special Verified classes(listed a few posts down)! Links and more information is available belowwwwwwwwwwww!!!!! I believe you only need to be upgraded in MQ to get the Starlord class though!!!

I was hoping to have another big thing in Soluna released yesterday but I forgot to find a moderator for the forums that is required for this X_x but I'm sure I'll get that taken care of this week. It may even come out on Wednesday if we can get things figured out in time.

Anywho, for those just joining Yokai, I feel I should mention that Jemini has stolen the Dragon Heart Shards from Warlic's Ultimate Weapon! It's up to you, Char, and Sys-Zero to track her down and recover them!

And uh, If we haven't referred to the elemental things as Dragon Heart Shards in game, that's my bad. Pretty sure I was supposed to replace some words in dialogue... Still will eventually in any case. I'll have Maegwyn help me since I know she loves to :D!!!!!! That's right. 6 exclamation points! And another! And one more!! And look! 2 More! Actually 3 More! Or is it 4!? I lost count!!! No more.

Expect a boss fight this upcoming week. Also some new weapons. It has become a Game of Death! Can we say death? It has become a Game of Potential-and-Unfortunate-Restarting-of-Quests!!

Greetings and salutations friends! I wanted you to be the first to know about a horrifyingly scary, highly technical, and possibly universe destroying change coming to the MechQuest login screen. It will either be the coolest* thing we have ever done... or the worst use of our last two months ever! Behold! In just a week or two you will be able to login in to the game with your normal MechQuest account OR the new BattleOn account "One Login to Rule them All!" on a single screen**. Here is a picture of the prototype that we currently have working. There is more than meets the eye to this new feature. It is the final step before we are able to add things like scratches out a bunch of cool technical stuff that no one cares about and skips straight to cross-game achievements! Which means things you do in MechQuest will unlock special titles, items and other unlockable rewards that you can use in other games... and even future ones! (Oh, Warlic's 1st person swordfighting game, Bladehaven will be coming out soon after this too.) The achievement system will be able to scan your account and see everything you have already done in MechQuest and give you the achievements for it. I think it will be really fun -- but first things first, we have to make the login work***. Take a look at the screenshot above, and please let us know if you have any ideas to make the login even better. Battle on!

* Even cooler than when you tried to stop global warming by leaving your freezer door open?** Which sorta makes it the "TWO logins to rule them all"*** Integrating 5 different databases containing over 101 million registered accounts, multiple entry paths, account management, and ~500 million characters.... hah! No problem! (P.S. Why are you not done yet?)

Before I get into the bug fixes, I want to point out that AQWorlds is updating their Verification Shop! This means that by upgrading in AdventureQuest, DragonFable, and MechQuest, you can get access to THREE (3) brand new classes this weekend in AQW! You don't even need an AQW membership to get them! Each class will also have it's own unique skills!

If you are having trouble verifying your memberships in one of the other games, CLICK HERE for help!

You may find more information in the AQWorlds Design Notes which can be found HERE.

On to Buggy Monday.

NO MORE Blackscreen when leaving Yokai and trying to walk out of the Dean's office fixed (you now go outside the University instead of into the Dean's Office).

Fixed over the weekend: issue with swordfight enemy freezing.

Mechas that prevented you from going to the next screen in walkaround quests fixed: The Psychic Wings, the Eggs, the original Werewolf series and also the newer Werewolf series

Jawseph's Acid DoT now works

Energy Vein no longer carries its damage boosts to the next battle (both arms)

Plasma Guns now do the correct damage for each of the 4 hits (the last 2 were doing lower damage than they should've been)

Lucky Blademasters now changed over to Bladestorm name and description; body animations fixed and everything should now be working as intended.

NSC and SC Mechula head: incorrect numbers in description of head's 2nd hit changed to 15 as intended - also, Front Arm special for all 3 versions of the Mechula now has a popup.

We got a good chunk of fixes out of the way today and it felt great. Now for this week, the Dojo at the far end of the town in Yokai will be explored. You'll fight a brand new enemy as you begin your hosile takeover of the town to return it to it's rightful citizens. There will also be more new weapons and hopefuly we'll get those alternate Sam Rye versions out in time.

I understand many of you are still having trouble finding your way to Yokai. We're working on a big improvement to the C-Mail system that will let you see exactly what you're at in each required storyline. This is the perfect opportunity to introduce our latest friend to step up to the plate.

Vivi is going to be helping us out with a lot of testing and possibly more but he'll be especially valuable because, and he may not even know it yet, he'll be helping us get the C-Mail system in working order! We should optimistically have it up and running next week or the week after that. This week would be fantastic but I have no idea if it's possible yet. So big thanks and congratulations to Vivi.

As for everyone that's having problems, please bare with us. We know it's frustrating and annoying but we really think it's good for the game's integrity to have a storyline and this new system should REALLY help out. Until then, I do greatly apologize for the inconveniences. My advice would be to simply go back to the required planets and try beating the final bosses/quests again.

In either case, hope everyone had a great Monday. I also hope the rest of the week gos great as well. As always, thanks for playing.

So first off, yes. Small release. I decided to take this time to check out how basic the sword fighting system is really code and as I found out, while it is basic in terms of functionality, it is ridiculously complicated when it comes to how it was coded. So in essence, it got a face lift. Here are a few things that would've come out, had there not been so many hoops to jump through to get this stuff to work: More variations of monsters, More energy blade weapons that included the magic spells (certain old energy blade weapons will get magic eventually as well), another training quest.

I'm sure I missed something. Anyways, it seems small but it was enough work to keep me working late nights. While I'm doing this, Arklen is animating the first boss monster which may come next week or the week after. Jemini is working on some stuff for the homepage as well as making backgrounds for the first boss and next week's release. We have another project going on that will go into Soluna which should be a fun thing. I have Maegwyn helping me get things in order for an updated C-Mail that will basically tell you what you need to do for each of the storylines that are required to access Yokai. This should make it much easier to see if you need to complete a certain quest or not.

However, all of this proved too much for one week. The cosmetics of the swordfighting have changed. Soon, when I can find a programmer that has time, it will get updated scaling and specials. For now, the ninja class will remain over-powered and we will just slowly trickle magic effects into existing energy weapons. I'll make sure we note which ones get them. The blade katana is just a small sample.

The attack extra moves make it much less mind-numbing. In te future there will be cooldowns and special attributes making the player choose what classes to be. At least, that's my goal.

On another note, I know some people are feeling bad for new players that have to come in and start playing and not have access to a new release but at the same time, I would think that a newer release wouldn't be available to the beginners. My stance on this whole pre-requisites issue is that, in any game you play, you're never ever to play the last level right away or play the middle level right away. You always start at the beginning and work your way. That's my opinion of how MechQuest should be but as I said before, if you all really want the game to be wide-open and not have the player required to see a part of the story that a newer part of the story is dependant on, then yeah, I'll open it up.

On the next note, I do apologize for the release being small. As I said earlier, it was supposed to be much bigger but certain things just kept me from progressing. I understand many of you are upset about that but all I can really say is that life happens. We're a little short-handed at the moment and there's a LOT going on in the background. More of these background details will be revealed early next week so feel free to look forward to them.

As for the weapons:

Yo-yu-mi: 55% chances for crits on both hits.

Maki-Suro: Lowers enemy defense by 30 for 2 turns. Guaranteed on hit.

Juugeki-Saisa: Front arm increases in damage per hit. Accuracy increases by 10 for the first 3 hits as well. 4th hit offers an accuracy nerf of -30 and lasts 3 turns which has an 80% chance of triggering.

The back arm increases damage per hit, with +12 accuracy on hits 1, 2, and 3. Then an accuracy nerf of -40 for 3 turns. Guaranteed when it hits. Hits 2 and 4 will heal half of the damage done for those 2 hits.

So there you have it. New stuff all laid out. More is definitely to come in the future. Next week will be a standard quest release with some rewards. Probably going to get those extra monsters out around Monday. Sorry for the inconvenience. I notice I say that a lot these days. Enjoy your weekends!

It is I, Jemini, Time Traveler Extraordinaire! And what you don't realize is....this message is coming from....THE FUTURE!

DUN DUH DHUNNN!

Anyway, down to business...Char has created a device that allows you to follow me through wormholes. Through time and space!! WHOAMG!! What!?! The Dragonoid Saga is sure taking some exciting turns... If you're having trouble accessing this part of the quest string...here's what you should do: Check and make sure you've done absolutely everything. And I do mean everything! Can't remember what everything is? Whelp your in luck! Cause I'm going to remind you....

1. Start Dean Warlic's Quests, go to the Moon, finish the Quests and beat the Kingadent!

2. Use the Star Map to visit Planet 51 - complete all steps necessary to become the Grand Champion. There are 20 ranks to achieve!

3. Travel to Planet Westion and complete all quests, including the Bug War One and Two! You can find those in the Research Labs and the Inn in Khaeldron - Take the train in Westion to go there.

4. Use the Star Map in Soluna City's News Screen to travel to Planet Gark for the introduction to the Planet Lagos storyline.

5. Use the Star Map in Soluna City's News Screen to travel to Planet Lagos. From the War Screen, click “Replay War” and then “Rescue Robina” to play the Lagos Storyline (note: You can also talk to Prince Robert on Gark to reach the Lagos Storyline). Complete all quests for Robert and Robina, and then play the Arthurian vs. Pirate War.

6. Visit Dean Warlic in his office at the University. He has important information for you. (Doesn't he always! :P) Once you've finished all this, a new NPC will appear! Look behind your back in Warlic's Office!

7. Warlic's dialogue will now give you access to the Braddock Steele Vacation/Shadowscythe War on Lagos.

Wowza that's a lot of stuff! Now that we're up to speed you can talk to Char to get the release. If your still having trouble you can replay the vacation war boss fight if you did everything, and I do mean everything, but can't get the release.

YES you are supposed to be sent to the University - so go up to see the Dean and talk to Char! If you haven't done everything you need to do, you SHOULD be sent to the News Screen.

Phew....now that that's off my chest. Lets continue. My name is Jemini, I'm a well...Gemini, I have a weakness for kittens and I can't help but pick up shinny things!

Just look at how shinny that is! Aren't you mesmerized by its Shinny! Well! Aren't you!?! Anyway, It seems this Metal Element has caused Miko and the people of Planet Yokai some problems...thanks to me. (Whoops...Sorry!...or am I?) So don't just sit there....go explore that planet!

I hope you guys enjoy this release. Thanks for playing! And just try to catch me! ^_~.

Korin and the entire MQ team would like to thank you for making the Maypril release a wonderful day for MechQuest!

*X-Boost on facebook - This was the topmost dire Gremlin on the list, and it is now fixed! Your X-Boosts work again when you log in via facebook - I tested this myself.

*Witch Launcher Series - Some of the Witch Launchers mysteriously became invisible recently. They are visible again!

*Maypril Fools Front Arms - Before the midnight release, we made a small change to the extra shot on the Front Arm - unfortunately the change was a little flibberty. We read on the forums that some models were still capable of doing a whopping 500 damage in one turn! This arm was intended to be powerful... but not quite that powerful.

Now. The question is: how is it now? The Maypril Fools mechas were intended to be powerful with all the defaults equipped, and of course you can customize them by equipping something different in the equippable slots - but we do want this front arm to be nice. While these will not be restored to their former overpowered glory, your input will be taken into consideration as we are always open to your feedback in the Game Balance Discussion section of the MQ Forums.

What? You fixed... 3 things?Yep! Normally on Sundays, I go over the spreadsheet and determine what Gremlins are the most dire of all. Then on Monday, I start giving the list to Korin and whomever can code fixes. And we go down the list and get as much fixed as possible.

I got up extra-early this morning to prep for Buggy Monday. I believe the Gremlins felt slighted by their Sunday neglect! First they invaded the AE servers (some of you experienced downtime) - then they wandered into how my antivirus program was interacting with my browser, tinkered with my router, and it seems that they even tried to take on The Google! After hours of changing settings and disabling/enabling things, finally I can has The Google again! And my confusing and colorful spreadsheet!

Being as it was rather late in the day when I finally got my system to behave... we .. got a few things fixed. Which is good! I know some of you have been waiting for other fixes which are also high-priority, and these are coming S.O.O.N. (that's Soon Ohyes Oh-indeed-not Never). We will be bringing you a much larger bugfixing day. Soon. (Which does not mean Someday Or Otherwise Never!)

Anyway! Thanks for playing MechQuest. If you haven't registered for the forums yet, please check out this link http://forums2.battleon.com/ for a friendly environment where you can talk with your fellow players and even Korin himself!

May Day Weapons: Specials!Charfade created these and even did most of (if not all of) the animations! I can't decide which one is the coolest. I do wish I had a real-life Weed Killer Shooter to combat a particular Evil Force - I would name it the Euonymus Eradicator. (Euonymus fortuneii, or Wintercreeper, is this insane groundcover that is creeping relentlessly and aggressively from the neighboring apartments into our backyard...) I do believe it is plotting to take over the Universe! But I digress.

Here are the specials for the May Day Weapons:Front Arm - Leaf Blower (NG)Hits 1, 2, and 3 each have an increasing chance to do a critical hitHit 4: A good chance to nerf enemy accuracy -40 hit bonus for 3 turns. On hit. (No popup.)

Back Shoulder - Seed shooter (SC)Hit 1: Good chance to nerf Immobility Resistance by 70. On hit.Hit 2: Good chance for stun. On hit.

Front Shoulder - Weedkiller shooter (NG)Hit 1: Good chance of a critical hit.Hit 2: Good chance for Defense nerf of 40. On hit.Hit 3: Good chance crit.Hit 4: Good chance for Energy Damage over Time. On hit.

Temporary Shortcut to Necryptos:FACT: The New Release button is the way to Necryptos temporarily, while the Maypril Fool mechas are in town.

Why? Fact: Because you need a way to get to Necryptos. FICTION: Because trying to walk East in Soluna when the Great Wall of Buttons becomes too large causes insanity (and concussions). And because you can already get to Lagos via the Star Map, but you can't get to Necryptos that way yet. And why is that? Well, the... er... Stellar United Intergalactic Planetary Cartographers' Association (SUIPCA) is really really busy ... attending an in-depth workshop on the breakthrough technology known as the String-and-Silly-Putty Method! And trying to come up with a better acronym. Why? Because SUIPCA means "preposterously non-existent" in Ancient Zargonian! (Disclaimer: this completely whimsical explanation having nothing to do with actual in-game storyline is officially unofficially pure Maypril Foolishness.)

May Day weapons are in the shops for one week: I will get a list of their specials up for you probably before the weekend is over. These specials started as a collaboration between blues and me because he was going on vacation, and then Korin made them even better and also I should tell you that we had some amazing assistance on this release: Koi (who is AQW's wonderful bug tester) helped by writing most of the descriptions of everything and Kalanyr (who many of you will recognize from Adventure Quest) coded the Maypril Fool mecha! So applause to them, three cheers and hooray - and enjoy your weekend!